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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Our Thanksgiving Pies...

For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I would ask
Jamie every day, “What are you thankful for today?”His responses were mostly silly but sometimes
sweet, reminding me of something I’m thankful for every day – someone who can always
make me smile.

During a time when I’m working so hard to try to make
certain dreams come true – such as my bakery business – it’s easy to get caught
up in my hopes of the things I wish I
had, but there are so many other things to be thankful for already.I have a job that pays my bills, with enough
room for extras.I have wonderful
friends.I have people who love me.I have my health and my mind.I have Jamie.I have our future together to look forward to…

We did save the wishbone from the turkey and wish to win
the lottery tonight, when it climbed to over $500 million.It snapped into 3 or 4 pieces, though, with
the bone fragments scattering around the kitchen, but with both of us wishing
for the same thing, surely that would ensure we’d win anyway, right?Silly little wishbone.It reminds me of the episode of Friends when
they all bought tickets together and wished on a wishbone to win the lottery,
but they dropped their tickets out the window and ended up winning just $6 with
one of the ones they picked up.And as
it turned out, Joey gave up his lottery wish for a wish that Chandler would get
the job he wanted.I sure miss Friends!

With my parents just having moved back to the East coast,
and not enough vacation days accrued (on my part) to travel to visit our
families, we stayed in town, and spent the day with a few friends.And since my friend’s dad who was at their
house visiting is on a gluten-free diet, I challenged myself to make only
gluten-free food that he would be able to eat, too.

First I made Cranberry Orange Compote, naturally
gluten-free, so that wasn’t a problem.I
love this compote – the tart whole berries with a hint of orange and spices are
so much better than the canned, jellied sauce that I grew up eating.

My next dish was the Sweet Potato Casserole with Brown
Sugar Pecan Streusel – I commissioned Jamie to make this since I was busy
making pies, and everyone raved about how good it was.This was a simple adjustment, since the only
gluten is in the flour for the streusel topping, and it’s not crucial to the
structure of the dish, so a basic swap with a gluten-free flour blend was easy
and tasted just as good.

The real challenge was going to be the pies, though.I wanted to make a tart, with an almond crust
filled with chocolate pastry cream, sprinkled with a little sea salt and sliced
almonds, and garnished with whipped cream.For my other pie, I had in mind a mixed berry Holiday Pie with
cranberries, cherries and blueberries.

For the tart crust, I used just almond meal, swapping it
out for the all-purpose flour in my favorite shortbread tart crust recipe.It wasn’t an easy swap, though, since the
almond meal contained more moisture, and I had to add quite a bit more, and it
still ended up pretty sticky and impossible to roll out and transfer in one
piece to the pan, so I pressed the scraps into the pan instead.It even stuck to the parchment paper I rolled
it out on, something I didn’t even think was possible!

I made a silky and creamy dark chocolate pastry cream,
which was naturally gluten-free since it contained corn starch but no
flour.Other than the difficulty of the
stickiness of the dough, it also seemed to want to stay stuck to the pan when I
tried to take off the removable sides after baking.After trying, unsuccessfully, I wiggled a
knife down the sides of the pan and managed to get the tart out without
breaking it to pieces.I was pretty
happy with the result, especially since it was my first attempt at making a
gluten-free crust of any kind.And
according to everyone at the party, it tasted amazing!Now, I will admit, that personally I prefer
my shortbread tart crust made with flour, or a few finely chopped nuts with the
flour for an almond or pecan shortbread, but for a gluten-free option, it was
pretty good.

My next project was the gluten-free pie crust for the
pie.I hoped to find a gluten-free pie
crust mix of some kind, but after ending up at Whole Foods, which I figured had
the best selection, and not finding anything, I settled for an all-purpose
blend of tapioca, potato and bean flours/starches.I’ve read articles on gluten-free baking, but
really didn’t have the time (or room) to buy 5 or 6 different flours, plus
xanthan gum, to make my own perfect blend.If I did more of this in the future, though, then it would be
interesting to experiment.

I substituted the gluten-free flour equally for the flour
in my all-butter pie crust recipe, adding an egg yolk to help it bind, but my
problem here was just that the dough was very crumbly and absolutely refused to
stick together.Here again, I ended up
pressing the dough into the pan, sealing up all the little scraps.My pie crust leaves on top turned out very pretty,
though.In spite of the trouble with
getting the crust into the pan, it baked very nicely, and the filling had a
wonderful slightly tart, slightly sweet flavor from the combination of berries
and spices.I did miss the flakiness
that my pie crust usually has, and the gluten-free version was more crumbly
than flaky, but was still good.

Besides the pies I brought to the party, I also baked an
Apple Pie for another friend, and made that one with my own little twist on a
lattice top.Instead of overlapping long
strips of dough, I cut the dough into squares, and then just arranged all the
squares on top, with a few leaves here and there.I thought the result was striking, and
definitely original!

All in all, I’d say my gluten-free experience was a
success, and it taught me a little lesson in the science involved in
baking.To this day, I’ve taken the
binding properties of gluten completely for granted, but now I know better.

I haven’t quite satisfied my pie-baking urges for the
season, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to share a few more recipes before
Christmas…

In a large bowl,
whisk together the flour, powdered sugar and salt. Scatter the cold butter pieces over the
flour, and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until
you have coarse crumbs (about 1-2 minutes). Add the egg yolk, a little
at a time, stirring into the flour and butter with your fingers.
Working quickly, work the dough with your fingers to incorporate the
moisture into the flour. (The dough will appear very dry, and you might
think it doesn't have enough liquid, but don't worry, it will come
together.) After 2-3 minutes of working the dough, it should start to
hold together enough so that you can gather it into a ball. During the last minute of working the dough, sprinkle in the almonds.

Grease your tart pan
very thoroughly with butter or cooking spray. Take half the dough and
press evenly into the bottom of the tart pan, all the way to the edges.
Take the other half of the dough, and press evenly around the sides of
the pan. Freeze crust in pan for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a piece of foil, and press the foil, greased side down, against the bottom and sides of the crust. Fill the foil with dry beans or pie weights. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until browned. Cool completely.

Cook's Note: For a gluten free option, substitute finely ground almond meal for the flour, or a combination of almond meal and a gluten free flour blend.

Chocolate Pastry
Cream:

2 cups whole milk

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely
chopped

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 teaspoon vanilla

Garnish:

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Sliced almonds

Coarse sea salt

To make the pastry cream, pour the milk into a saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer, just until the milk starts to steam, over medium low heat.In a separate bowl, whisk together egg
yolks, sugar, corn starch and cocoa powder; it will be very thick. Ladle abouta cup of the hot milk into the mixture, whisking to incorporate. Scrape the mixture into the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until
thick like pudding, then remove from the heat.Whisk in chocolate and butter, a little at a time until melted, and the vanilla. Pour the pastry cream through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg. Cover with plastic, resting the plastic directly against the cream, and cool in the refrigerator for two hours. Uncover, whisk the cream and spread into the cooled crust. Chill for several more hours.

To garnish, whip the whipping cream and powdered sugar until as stiff as you like; pipe or spread onto the tart. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and the sliced almonds.

Prepare the pie dough and refrigerate until ready to use,
taking it out of the fridge about 10-15 minutes before you need to roll it out.

In a large sauce pan, combine the cranberries,
blueberries, cherries, brown sugar, corn starch, orange juice, orange zest,
cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.Simmer over medium low heat until juicy, stirring occasionally.Raise heat to medium and bring to a boil,
stirring constantly; once it boils, boil for 1-2 minutes until thick enough to
coat a spoon.Remove from the heat and
stir in the vanilla.Set aside to cool
for 30 minutes to an hour, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375.Line a baking sheet with foil.Roll out one disk of pie dough so that it can fit into a deep-dish pie
pan with one inch overhang.Sprinkle the
bottom of the dough with a tablespoon of flour (to prevent a soggy crust).Spoon the warm filling into the dough. If desired, dot the filling with a few tablespoons of diced butter.Trim the edges of the dough with a knife and
crimp the edge with your fingers.

Roll out the other disk of dough to 1/4 inch thick.Using a decorative pie crust cutter (or small
cookie cutter), cut shapes and place all over the top of the fruit filling,
leaving some gaps so that steam can escape.Beat the egg and water together with a fork, then use a pastry brush to
brush the egg wash over the dough cutouts and the edge (to help it brown).Sprinkle the dough with a little coarse
Turbinado sugar, so it sparkles.

Place the pie pan on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake
for 50-60 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden
brown.Halfway through baking, check
the crust and cover with foil, if needed, to prevent overbrowning.Cool pie on a wire rack at room temperature
for at least 5-6 hours, or overnight, before cutting, to ensure filling is completely
set.